A Green Acre

We Believe

2011-12-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T08:43:00.002-07:00

We are thankful...

2011-11-27T08:45:00.001-07:00

..for having most of the boxes unpacked and were able to host a Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends.

The latest

2011-11-03T07:51:00.001-07:00

Looking forward to getting final occupancy. A few contractor jobs remain but we are settling in for the winter.

approaching front door

Tightening up loose ends

2011-10-14T08:27:00.004-06:00

Living with the final boxes

Driveways

Backsplash Tile

2011-10-08T20:02:00.001-06:00

Petit Metro tile

Grout and Moving Day

2011-10-04T22:17:00.000-06:00

Virginia and I filled all the cement cuts by hand. Her favorite job so far!

Then we moved in...basically every room looks like this. But we are now home and blissfully sleeping in our new abode.

Pavers

2011-09-29T21:08:00.005-06:00

The path to Virginia's parking spot

Beautiful

Night Light

2011-09-28T11:11:00.002-06:00

Counttops

2011-09-27T07:28:00.000-06:00

LIGHTS!

2011-09-22T07:33:00.003-06:00

Lights

Tagged

Monday

2011-09-19T21:30:00.004-06:00

Cabinets and island

The chandelier project continues.

Stucco

Cabinets

2011-09-14T13:49:00.006-06:00

The guys from Calls Design are awesome.

The chandelier project.

Today at the Pasture

2011-09-07T20:56:00.006-06:00

Front Door

La Habra

The light are on

The dreaded ugly gas meter

Cranking

2011-08-31T07:38:00.009-06:00

Things are cranking along

Cedar siding

Exuberant Pink

Chimney ready for stucco

55 Gallon hot water storage

GPA is the wardrobe builder

GPA gets to work

2011-08-22T21:17:00.004-06:00

We're so far behind, we brought in the "senior" staff. Grandpa had fun in the sun staining red cedar in 100 degrees. YeeHaw! thanks GPA....it looks gorgeous.

Sagebrush Painting

2011-08-21T21:12:00.006-06:00

These guys are rockin it. They are going to be done on Tuesday. Plumbing and electrical are next. Moving in with various relatives starting Thursday until we get occupancy. Shooting for September 15th. Everyone send their good JUJU this way.

Paint

2011-08-17T21:15:00.003-06:00

Things are being painted

MUD

2011-08-04T20:46:00.004-06:00

Master bedroom

Master Bathroom

ROCK

2011-08-01T15:15:00.006-06:00

Roxie's room

Dinningroom, Master Bedroom entrance

Family room

Ahh

Update

2011-07-27T18:43:00.008-06:00

We are a month from losing our care-taking gig. Things are flying. Literally, insulation is flying into the rafters. Sheetrock coming soon.

Chandelier block out. 30 free hanging filament bulbs.

Insulation

2011-07-21T08:34:00.004-06:00

Kitchen Rendering

2011-07-17T13:52:00.003-06:00

Calls Design Inc

2011-07-16T10:26:00.003-06:00

We meet with the Calls Design team and our plans for cabinets are in the works. Great folks to work with and they do beautiful work.

Kitchen Plans

2011-07-09T08:19:00.007-06:00

Kitchen plans are coming along. A few tweaks here and there. The bids are coming in and we will be choosing a cabinet maker next week. Here is the sketch up of the kitchen cabinets and island.

Check out this bad ass range we bought last week. It will sit smack in the middle of our new kitchen.

Front walk

2011-07-07T17:06:00.005-06:00

Beauty

Soffit

2011-07-06T21:25:00.005-06:00

They are beautiful

Flying buttresses

Tuesday Happenings

2011-06-28T17:34:00.007-06:00

Midnight Bronze metal wrapping the front columns.

Nothing like having a window in your house to let a crane reach thru. Removing the metal crates the monster Marvin window arrived in.

Green Ditch Share

2011-06-27T21:01:00.004-06:00

We received our Green Ditch water share. Let the irrigation water flow. Currently as a resident of the Pearce Subdivision we gather the water in the pond, it's then filtered and pumped to the rest of the property. No culinary water will be used outside for vegetation.

Child Labor

2011-06-23T21:09:00.002-06:00

Mark, Roxie is taking over for you in your absence.

Lift and Slide Window

2011-06-21T08:05:00.004-06:00

Summer BBQ

2011-06-18T11:45:00.003-06:00

Summer time kickball and BBQ. Slowly but surely the Pasture project is chugging along. Jereme from K-Bar Electric is almost done pulling the wiring. Next week is a big one with plumbers, security, lift and slide windows, some of the roofing and finally some grading around the site.

Track

2011-06-12T09:53:00.006-06:00

The All Purpose window team has laid down the track. It's ready for

windows to be hung next week.

North window out of the family room.

MB Door

2011-06-08T17:13:00.005-06:00

I'm glad we added this master bed room door back into the design.

North window of the master bed room. 14' tall with lower half double hung.

1st Window

2011-06-06T16:43:00.001-06:00

Integrity by Marvin

2011-06-03T13:43:00.005-06:00

Most of the rest of the windows arrived.

Moving Ahead

2011-06-02T19:03:00.005-06:00

We signed off on the new doors even though they were shipped the wrong size. The Marvin engineer, our engineer, the architects at Imbue Designs, Benchmark Modern and us worked out the best solution to get the doors working properly. Slight modifications in our slip joint and a new stainless steel cap on the bottom track solved Marvin's mistake of oversizing the door. Marvin has been a great company to work with and we really wanted to make this work. They took full blame for the mistake and were willing to do anything we ultimately decided. We are moving forward with the installation next Monday. I'll keep everyone up to speed as it happens.

On a better note we have moved on from our Belmont Ave house and are caretaking a friend's house for the summer until the Pasture Project is done. Our 9th and 9th neighborhood will be missed but the pasture is calling....

Bigger isn't always better

2011-05-27T08:47:00.002-06:00

The Marvin windows arrived to big. Check back for a resolution.

Marvin Windows

2011-05-24T15:20:00.007-06:00

The Marvin lift and slide window arrived today.

Let's not forget this window is 36 feet long and 12 feet tall. MONSTER WINDOW.

More Framing

2011-05-14T08:45:00.004-06:00

Fireplace

Buttresses

Inside Framing

2011-05-11T16:04:00.000-06:00

Roof

2011-05-09T15:31:00.004-06:00

Spring in UTAH

2011-04-30T08:48:00.004-06:00

The crane was here all day.

Then it snowed.

Beam me up

2011-04-28T19:50:00.007-06:00

Now thats a door. The crane showed up for two hours. Lumber spread around the site.

And the beam set in place. A big sigh of relief.

Looking south, west

Progress

2011-04-26T20:05:00.004-06:00

Framing has started

2011-04-23T08:41:00.006-06:00

Virginia and Jerry selling one house to pay for the other one.

North East wall going up

Concrete sealing

2011-04-20T14:32:00.005-06:00

Putting the Imbue boys to work

Concrete

2011-04-13T20:23:00.004-06:00

We have a pad.

Radiant

2011-04-01T20:27:00.004-07:00

Lots of tube, dude

Around the fireplace

Mesh

2011-03-31T11:23:00.004-07:00

Jack standing guard

With any luck we can pour a slab next week.

Happenings

2011-03-23T21:43:00.005-07:00

2 of 3" layers of insulations are down

Electrical conduit

Phoebe helping hold down insulation sheets

March Update

2011-03-23T08:20:00.007-07:00

Master bath rendering.

Master tub and faucet placement.

Waterlines are in.

Poop Connection

2011-03-02T15:18:00.003-07:00

More Plumbing

2011-03-01T19:50:00.008-07:00

Imbue Designs

Rough Plumbing

2011-02-28T15:01:00.006-07:00

The crew standing in the master bath

Main sewer line traveling west to east

Happenings

2011-02-25T07:12:00.003-07:00

Dirt

Preparing for the storm

It Snowed

2011-02-18T07:20:00.001-07:00

Round two of forms and concrete.

The Big Dig

2011-02-16T17:21:00.012-07:00

Well, just like that we started to dig and in an afternoon the excavator had the footings ready. And just like that, this morning the footing forms were put up and concrete started to flow. It's a big dig out there and pending weather looks like it's gonna make it soggy real quick. The second level of forms are being assembled tomorrow and more concrete. Stay tuned for lots of excitement.

Emmett is in love with the piles of dirt all over the pasture.

Closed

2011-02-02T14:22:00.006-07:00

Can you friggin believe it. We finally closed our construction loan yesterday. I had a stomach ache after signing. Be aware out there that modern custom homes are hard to find financing for. It was like pulling teeth with Washington Federal to get it through to them that homes outside of the BOX are a good thing. Green, passive and well designed homes are what the world needs but the banks only care what they will get out of it in the bottom line. Do lots of homework, collect MLS listings for comparables and have a large down payment. Sell your current home early and use the money. Watch for things like interest payments on your construction draws, insurance for the site and title closing fees. Wish us luck. Mark Haslom from Benchmark Modern is hopefully starting the project on Monday.

So Close...But

2010-12-10T11:46:00.004-07:00

We are so close to closing our loan but a neighbor from the past is now haunting us. As you know a year or so ago we settled the fence line disputes with the neighbors. This had to be done in order to get final subdivision approval from the City of Holladay and Salt Lake City. It seems one of the disputes was never settled with our neighbor's mortgage company, and they now have a current lien on their property. Double ouch. So, because our lot is part of the settlement of the fence line we are standing by. We are in full fight mode.

On a better note, our contractor Mark Haslom of Benchmark Modern is ready to break ground.

Update

2010-11-11T20:28:00.005-07:00

Well almost all the paper work is into the bank. The appraisal of the land with the finished house is going through it's motions right now and we are hoping to hear word from the bank next week. If all goes well we will have a ground breaking in a few weeks. The guys at Benchmark Modern are looking at a time frame of having the foundation finished by the first of the year. Wow. The large sliding window on the north-side of the house is going through some growing pains and is slightly being tweaked. Even while downsizing it, it is going to be outrageous. The window package is being put together by Marvin Windows. The doors we picked are the Marvin Ultimate Lift and Slide. Ours are 11'6" tall and 6' wide with a total of 6, 3 stacking on either end. An engineering feat if you ask me. Wish us luck.

Holding Pattern

2010-10-08T10:12:00.003-06:00

Should I really blog if there isn't a whole lot to say. We choose Benchmark Modern as our contractor. Mark Haslom will be taking on the project. We are slowly getting the budget fit into the tiny hole called the budget. Wish us luck. More to come hopefully next week with a trip to the bank.

Budget Cuts

2010-09-17T21:36:00.005-06:00

It's crunch time and we are trimming the fat, or really the house. We are close and with every cut we get closer to our budget. The trombe wall is out, Zinc Roof out, we cut one of the fireplaces, the glass wall has shrunk. Square footage is down to 2665 from 2975 , not to worry the house is still plenty. Just a few more tweeks and we will be at the budget we have been qualified for from the bank. Cross your fingers for a fall ground breaking.

A few of the latest...

End of the line

2010-09-10T10:19:00.004-06:00

Well the Cliff Johnson Excavating has finished the waterline including the hydrant. Lot services will be connected next week after it has passed all the tests. These guys were great. Minimal trees were disturbed and they were great communicators as to the daily progress. They also keep in mind that our parents were still living on the lots that the line went through and kept the mess down.

Mean while all the potential contractors sent in the bids. We are in the process of cutting the fat. Two of the three bids were well over $100,000 more than our budget! Zinc roofs, some appliances, Trombe wall are all in negotiations. We are saddened as we thought the house could have been build to our initial budget. This has been a long learning process. Cuts will be made appropriately and all will work out. Folks... do your homework on start up costs!

Abby's new tractor

2010-09-01T14:16:00.003-06:00

The waterline project marches towards the pasture.

Waterline

2010-08-23T20:58:00.003-06:00

The waterline for the building site has started.

5085 South 2050 East

2010-08-13T15:04:00.005-06:00

AHHH the smell of diesel fuel... The trees are gone.

We have an entrance. Anyone wanting to visit us now

can enter through our very rough driveway.

High clearance vehicles only.

Construction documents have arrived and are beautiful.

Plans are our to potential contractors and the City of Holladay.

Things are moving right along.

Child Labor

2010-08-09T18:04:00.002-06:00

The new gate is painted

Make way

2010-07-26T18:38:00.007-06:00

for a driveway.

Before...

During...

After...

Building a gate to keep the creatures in the pasture is next.

Then tree removal. That should really get the gossip flying in the neighborhood.

Construction documents by the end of next week.

July

2010-07-06T21:06:00.003-06:00

View of the property looking towards Mount Olympus.

Congratulations It's a...

2010-06-25T10:18:00.006-06:00

Subdivision. June 24th 2010, 1570 days after we decided to start this process we finally have the Pearce Subdivision recorded with Salt Lake County. It was a huge battle but finally it is finished. Patience is virtue, I guess. We are now in the process of setting up the waterline excavation and getting ready for construction documents from the Imbue team. With any luck will be building a house this August. The latest rendering, dog and chicken included.

Steak-Out

2010-05-16T10:09:00.011-06:00

well it was really a BBQ with the staking-out of the floor-plan. Beautiful evening in Holladay. The house was set and we got to see where the front door was, the master bedroom view and the driveway. The length of the of the house was amazing to see. We were also surprised to see the size of our front yard. Paradise.

Floorplan

2010-04-27T14:07:00.003-06:00

Sweet. Adult area, public area, kids area.

Schematic signed off

2010-04-26T20:39:00.002-06:00

We finally signed off on schematic design. Interior walls might move around but the basic floor plan is set. The waterline engineering is almost complete with a few more tweaks. The final plat was presented today to the City of Holladay. We are hoping everything is in order and we can move ahead on getting all the paperwork finished. It has seemed along time coming.

Walk The Line

2010-04-09T16:25:00.002-06:00

Spent the morning walking the proposed waterline with the engineer from Bush and Gudgell. Close to 830 feet of waterline must be installed to bring in fire protection to the new lot. On the design front things are getting closer to being done with schematic design. Our best guess for construction plans is July 15th. With any luck we will be breaking ground in August of this summer.

Preliminary Plat Approval

2010-03-17T09:58:00.003-07:00

Finally a meeting the angry neighborhood didn't show up to. Although long the meeting was quit pleasant. Unanimous approval of our subdivision! Hip-Hip Hooray. Pressing forward towards Final Plat now. Wish us luck.

Uprising- We and Dem

2010-03-04T15:04:00.008-07:00

= rebellion, and also refers to a killer roots reggae album by Bob Marley.
Just our luck that our soon-to-be neighbors know this concept too and our idealistic desire to nest has turned into a neighborhood upprising. Still not convinced that we have the legal right to access our lot from a public road the fight goes on and has turned into another two weeks of delay. The facts and records are there, a survey was presented with all the legal descriptions. The city engineer was there with similar facts but we are now guilty until proven innocent.

From the Uprising album in the song We and Dem it says

"we no know how we and dem a-go work this out,oy!
we no know how we and dem a-go work it out."

Conceptual Plans Accepted

2010-02-17T08:00:00.002-07:00

The Holladay Planning Commission has adopted our conceptual plan for the subdivision. Two weeks to prepare for the Preliminary plot plan. This public forum was a real eye opener in the process. We are glad its over and we are moving on. "Welcome to the neighborhood"

Neighborhood Meeting

2010-02-13T13:11:00.006-07:00

Well that didn't go so good. Being a peaceful warrior I have no idea how people can get so upset and down right angry about land protection. Our current plans for a 2975sq foot home is absolutely the best use of the land we have. In it's current state the pasture property could be broken into 3, 1/2 acre lots, with a house on each. One single family dwelling for the possibility of three is what we are trying to do. Brought to the attention of the neighbors this comment was considered a "threat". Preserve the most amount of the property for open space and gardens. An idea which was brought to our attention was the thought that we ultimately wanted a road connecting one side of the property to the road on the other side making it a thoroughfare. Wow! Talk about destroying a beautiful place. In the words of a wise cranky old guy "Serenity Now"

Plans

2010-02-11T12:07:00.003-07:00

We have plans. Our choice combined the overall concepts we have been working with along. 2975 square feet, separate adult and children zones. Super energy efficient. Trombe wall. Bringing outdoors in. Neighborhood meeting tonight letting everyone around us whats happening with our subdivision process. Planning Commission Meeting next week. Specific floor plans and renderings coming soon.

Another Year and few months

2010-02-04T14:37:00.006-07:00

but who is really counting anymore. The neighbors have all agreed on the boundary lines of the property and "Holladay, we have lift off". The subdivision process is next along with will serve letters from utilities. If we are lucky we will be able to break ground this summer. For the last few years it has seemed like things were just around the corner from happening. Now I really believe they are happening. Thanks you Imbue Design for hanging in there.

Renderings of the Pasture House

2008-11-04T12:04:00.008-07:00

Well the property lines are still being worked on but the design process by the Imbue Design team is well underway. We are excited to get pictures up for everyone to see. Tell us what yo think? Six months from breaking ground and I have butterflies just thinking about it. Keeping our focus onthe future build gets us through the long subdivision process.

Kichen
South-side view, front of the house

West-side

A whole year later.

2008-09-05T14:31:00.006-06:00

Well we haven't updated in a year and boy oh boy how somethings have changed and others have not. If someone would have told us at the beginning of this process 2.5 years ago we would still be at this stage I would have told them they were nuts. Changed: Our original design company of HSpaceDB has gone out of business. Enough on that. Not Changed: we still haven't finalized the fence line disputes with the neighbors. Things are tied up with legal lot descriptions and title companies.

The silver-lining ? Our new design team of Chris Talvy and Hunter Gundersen of Imbue Designs have taken on our dream. The process of design and engineering is in full swing and we are now meeting with Imbue Designs once a month. The design is based on work started with the old team but now with Imbues newest contributions and floorplans. We choose the second design a sunken house with a full south facing roof and exterior wall. The budget will determined our hopes of a fully run solar home.

We are excited to be working with these guys and have full confidence that this will be one of the coolest homes in Holladay, Utah.

Don't fence me in

2007-08-21T11:46:00.000-06:00

Its a bummer but we are in a holding pattern. Fence line disputes with the neighbors are holding things up with our lot. Like a domino effect one thing effects another and having our 80 year old fence just over the deeded property line is holding up the P.U.D. process.

The silver lining is the boys are enjoying loops around the pumpkin patch, someday to be our kitchen.

Pick One

2007-07-23T15:28:00.000-06:00

Whoa- This latest meeting with HSpaceDB was exciting. To think that we actually get to pick a direction of design for a new home was a bit overwhelming and very grownup of us. The three plans given to us by Scott and this loyal gang were impressive and beautiful.

First, a cubic modern dream home with its water cooling features and clean lines.

Second, the earth model sunk into the ground with a south wall running one end of the house to the other heating and cooling us thought the year.

And third the modern farmhouse with its vaulted ceilings and private bedroom wing.

Details of all the floors and orientation on the pasture really brought the project to life. In just few minutes it didn't take long to eliminate one scheme from pile and the farmhouse lost. Our final decision came down to going with the earth scheme. The combination of beauty and layout of the house was "genius." So now the process of flipping rooms around, tweaking things has begun. I dreamt last night that I actually walked through the front door of this house.

The Program

2007-06-19T21:07:00.001-06:00

We had our first meeting with HSpaceDB about design today. E. did a faceplant at school and had to make an uncharted stop at the dentist, so it was just Chris, no mama. It was time to make some big decisions about what we want. What DO we want, if you can have anything? Bathroom down the hall? Kids up or down? How can you say? We've been talking, thinking, tossing around ideas for so long...wierd to finally try to put them on paper.

Scott sent some left over blocks of wood home with Chris so we could visualize the concept of rooms in a 3D way. It was a little overwhelming.

The pictures they sent home were gorgeous though...the views we'd have of the lovely barn, Mount Olympus, the pasture. They mapped out where the sun hits in the winter, and summer...very important information for a cold blooded creature like Virginia.

2500-ish square feet
3 bedrooms
2.5 bathrooms
one big kitchen, living, dining area, a "Family" room with room to explode in toys, projects and all the saturday morning glory with lots of connection to the outdoor space. Whew!

Open pasture brought into home, Home brought to pasture.

Our general direction is towards a modern farmhouse. An idea we are getting use to and finding out there are some beautiful designs which would fit our lifes. Possibilities of drawings on our next meeting brings smiles.

Here we go...

2007-05-26T13:44:00.000-06:00

Signed our contract yesterday, we've committed to building now. Scott Hinton, owner of HSpaceDB, seems to share our vision for the Pasture Project, and be as passionate about building something beautiful and green as we are. After agreeing that we shall not fight during these next two years, we went home and had a drink. Here we go...

An Eastern View

2007-05-26T08:50:00.001-06:00

A cold evening in April 2006 convinced us to raise our children in a green pasture. Under the sunset alpenglow of the new snow on the Wasatch Mountains they will have freedom to enter their own world of exploration.